What the Typical 40-Year-Old Canadian Has in Their TFSA and RRSP

Many 40-somethings feel behind, but the median TFSA and retirement balances show most Canadians are still building.

Amy Legate-Wolfe

Author Bio Amy became interested in investing in 2018 after having her first daughter. After receiving a masters degree in journalism from Western University, she became frustrated that the finance industry remained a confusing place for Canadians like her: new parents, millennials, and other young people who needed to understand their finances. Now, Amy focuses on tech companies and renewable energy for growth opportunities, coupling that with long-term investing strategies and equities. She also provides investors with a daily newsletter, Canada Stock Digest, for daily market updates. Her work can also be found at Canada's National Observer, where she writes on the business side of climate action. Before joining Motley Fool Canada, Amy wrote for major news organizations including HuffPost, CTVNews.ca, and CBC. When she’s not researching investing strategies, Amy’s time is pretty much monopolized by her two wild daughters, but in what little spare time she has she loves to do yoga, go on walks with her dog, and travel with her husband. Social Media Follow Amy on LinkedIn and Canada Stock Digest. Favorite Investment Quote “October: This is one of the particularly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February.” – Mark Twain

Published July 19, 9:15 am EDT

| More on: NTR

Key Points

StatsCan medians show many 35–44 Canadians have modest retirement and TFSA balances, so don’t benchmark against averages.
A TFSA is great for flexible, tax-free growth, while an RRSP shines when today’s tax rate is higher than retirement.
Nutrien offers a 3%+ yield and global food-demand exposure, but fertilizer earnings will swing with commodity cycles.

Retirement math has a rude habit of making normal people feel late. You can be paying the mortgage, raising kids, handling groceries, building a career, and still wonder whether everyone else somehow got a secret manual titled How to Be Rich by Tuesday. They did not. Most Canadians are figuring it out as they go.

Middle aged man drinks coffee — Source: Getty Images

What (some) have

The useful part is that we have some benchmarks. Statistics Canada’s 2023 figures showed Canadians aged 35 to 44 had an average retirement portfolio balance of $88,600, but a median balance of $30,000. Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) balances showed the same split, with an average of $32,300 and a median of $12,000.

That gap tells the real story. Averages can get pulled higher by people with large accounts. Medians show the middle. So, if your TFSA does not look like someone’s aggressively filtered finance TikTok, take a breath. You may not be as behind as you think. The CRA’s own TFSA data show how much room many Canadians still have. In the 2023 contribution year, Canadians aged 40 to 44 had an average TFSA fair market value of $20,670, while unused contribution room averaged $62,618.

A TFSA works well when you want tax-free growth and flexible withdrawals. Money goes in after tax, grows tax-free, and can come out without adding to taxable income. That can help with retirement income, emergency cash, or future flexibility. A Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) works better when you are in a higher tax bracket today and expect a lower tax rate later. Contributions can reduce taxable income now, while withdrawals get taxed later. Very useful and very much not a toy you should ignore until your future self starts sending angry emails.

Getting started

So, what’s a 40-year-old to do? First, do not obsess over the average. The median may be the better emotional benchmark. Then look at the gap between what you have and what you want. If your TFSA is underused, start there for flexibility. If your income is higher, your RRSP may deserve more attention because the tax deduction can be powerful.

Once the account strategy makes sense, the next question becomes what to buy. Investors looking for a long-term Canadian stock with income and global demand exposure may want to consider Nutrien (TSX:NTR), one of the world’s largest crop nutrient companies. It produces potash, nitrogen, and phosphate, and it also operates a large agricultural retail business. In simple terms, it helps farmers grow more food — not exactly glamorous, but neither is toothpaste, and we all keep buying that, too.

The investment case connects to a simple trend: the world needs food, and farmers need nutrients to improve crop yields. That does not make Nutrien immune to cycles, but it gives the company a real role in the global economy.

Into earnings

The latest results showed why the stock deserves a look. Nutrien stock’s potash-adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) rose to $578 million in the first quarter of 2026, helped by higher global benchmarks and record sales volumes. The company also returned $409 million to shareholders through dividends and buybacks.

That is the number to watch. Potash drives a major part of Nutrien stock’s earnings power, and stronger volumes show demand remains solid. The company also kept its controllable cash cost of potash manufactured below US$60 per ton, which supports its low-cost advantage.

The valuation gives income investors something to work with. At writing, Nutrien stock trades around 13.3 times trailing earnings, with a dividend yield of 3.3%. The risk is cyclicality. Fertilizer prices can move quickly, and Nutrien stock’s earnings can swing with global crop prices, farmer demand, input costs, and supply disruptions. This is not a “set it beside a GIC and forget it exists” stock.

Bottom line

Still, for a 40-year-old building TFSA or RRSP wealth, Nutrien stock offers a mix of dividends, global food demand, and commodity upside. The accounts are the container. The real progress comes from filling them with assets built to grow. A typical balance is only a starting line. The better question is what you do from here.